Fleets take many precautions to combat cargo theft, ranging from simple low-tech padlocks to high-tech telematics.

Cargo theft isn’t a new crime. One could argue that it’s one of mankind’s oldest wrongdoings, developing in parallel with civilization over thousands of years. What is piracy other than cargo theft on the open sea?

Today, truck fleets across the country face increased pressures from cargo theft, and the main reason isn’t hard to discern: Hard times drive people to desperate acts. And in the minds of many, cargo theft is a victimless crime of opportunity. Go to a truckstop. Spot an unsecured trailer. Wait for the driver to leave. Open the trailer up and see what’s inside. No one gets hurt. Right?

Wrong. The reality that far from being a victimless crime, today’s hard economic times are driving an uptick in violent attacks related to cargo theft. “Whether it’s going to be the theft of our cargo, or the theft of our tractors and trailers, we’re fighting it every single day, and lately it’s been getting worse,” says Bill Boehning, corporate director of security for Prime Inc., a Springfield, Mo.-based refrigerated carrier.

Boehning says Prime is seeing more blatant behavior in how criminals steal its cargo, including hijackings, robberies at gunpoint and drivers being assaulted. “We’re getting reports of crooks blocking trucks with multiple vehicles, pulling drivers out and tasering them. It seems like it’s escalating and ramping up quite a bit from the types of crime we used to deal with,” Boehning says.

Hard to define

Cargo theft involves a wide range of strategies and felons. Many thefts simply are crimes of opportunity where the driver isn’t a target but is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, but a large percentage of these crimes are carried out by organized groups ranging from a small band of friends to urban gangs – and even branches of organized crime.

In the latter case, fleets are dealing with sophisticated, determined criminals who conduct extensive research on their intended victims and exercise extreme patience before striking. Criminals have been known to follow drivers with high-value loads on multiple runs for hundreds or even thousands of miles to learn the driver’s habits – what truckstops he likes, where he likes to spend the night and what portions of his run are the most isolated. It’s profiling of the most sinister nature and all geared toward one goal: Determining the most opportune time to strike and steal the cargo with the least amount of risk.

Cargo Theft By State

 TOP 10

                                        2011                         2010

California                     304                             350

Texas                             173                              124

Florida                           146                              141

New Jersey                  130                              135

Illinois                              88                                88

Georgia                             76                              113

Tennessee                        32                               47

Pennsylvania                  29                               38

Indiana 21 11

North Carolina               17                                18

New York                          17                                11

*Top 10 account for 85% of total reported cargo theft incidents in 2011

Source: CargoNet U.S. Cargo Theft Report

California has reported the most cargo theft incidents for the past two years, according to CargoNet, while Texas jumped ahead of Florida in 2011 to claim the dubious No. 2 spot.

“Some of their tactics are pretty simple,” Boehning says. “They know – as we all do – that certain manufacturers produce certain items.” Thieves will sit covertly outside the manufacturer’s gates and patiently observe the trucks coming and going. “They see them go to the dock, and they have a pretty good idea of what the cargo being loaded is,” he says.

Prime Inc., a Springfield, Mo.-based refrigerated carrier, is seeing more blatant behavior in how criminals try to steal its cargo.

But the lengths that some criminals will travel in order to verify cargo is enough to send a chill down any fleet’s collective spine. “The criminals basically do reverse police work to find, learn and stalk their prey,” says Boehning, such as identifying a fleet’s insurance carrier and what types of policies they have.

“They’re smart enough to know a refrigerated fleet won’t pay a high-risk premium to ship cargo that’s not worth a whole lot,” he says. “This is how these guys make their living. They’re not playing around at this, and fleets can’t play around at this, either.”

Today’s high-target loads include pharmaceuticals, tobacco, alcohol and electronics. “With the economy still struggling, any cargo is at risk – even food items,” says Anthony Canale, vice president of CargoNet, a cargo-optimized theft recovery service.

Another big target is precious metals, where Prime has seen an increase in theft among its flatbed operations. “They’re targeted a little more than our reefers are,” Boehning says of his company’s flatbeds. “The crooks can tell right off they’ve got a full load of copper that they can get rid of as opposed to grabbing a reefer and ending up with a whole trailer full of lettuce.”